1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to relocation of display racks. More particularly it relates to a lifting apparatus which is especially adapted for lifting pallet style shelves employed in warehouses and warehouse style stores such as home improvement centers where pallets are stacked on large shelves.
2. Prior Art
Storage and display shelving in large warehouses is conventionally configured to hold pallets of products in large quantities. The same is true in warehouse type stores such as Costco and Home Depot where the products are sold in volume and moved in large lots on pallets. In order to conserve floor space in warehouse and retail situations and provide a better viewing and access to products, shelving is commonly provided that adapted to display the products to customers but accommodate the very heavy load which pallets and large quantities of products thereon impart to shelves.
In warehouses and stores where goods and products are stored for distribution or shipping, shelving is also employed to increase the storage capacity in the given floor space and to organize the inventory. Offices also use such pallet style shelving to hold records and display goods thereby concentrating storage in a small but heavy area.
All such shelving for pallets and large loads of products, whether in retail stores, warehouses, and offices, must be structurally able to support the load intended, making it heavy. Such shelving is even heavier when fully loaded with the products or items being stored on its shelves.
A vexing problem of such shelving by nature of its need to support a load is the weight and ungainly nature of the shelving when loaded with products for sale. The shelves loaded with products are inherently top heavy and easily tip over.
A variety of jacks and dollies have been introduced in the past, most of which pertain to the lifting of cabinets which have support legs with an adjustable leveling foot extending therefrom to level the shelves. However, most conventional lifting devices lack the ability generally to lift pallet type shelving which employs large steel vertical columns supporting large horizontal steel columns. Further, such industrial pallet type shelving is generally positioned directly in contact with the floor underneath and with vertical columns very close to adjacent vertical columns of other shelves.
Consequently, it is hard to get a jacking device under the columns which contact the floor, and very difficult to get a jacking device in-between adjacent vertical columns of adjacent shelves.
As such, there is a continuing unmet need for an improved lifting device for pallet type industrial shelving. Such a device should be easily engageable to vertical upright columns that are spaced very close together in a crowded warehouse environment. Such a shelving lifting device should also provide a strong, and stable engagement while lifting the heavy unstable shelving, to allow movement of the shelving with products on the shelves.